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Nanotoxicology

Nanoparticles versus the placenta

Pregnant mice treated 70-nm silica nanoparticles or 35-nm titanium dioxide nanoparticles suffer damage to the placenta and fetus, whereas larger nanoparticles do not have an adverse impact.

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Figure 1: Nanoparticles (shown in red) injected into the maternal blood supply (top) must pass through three layers of trophoblast cells to enter the fetal blood.

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Correspondence to Jeffrey A. Keelan.

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Keelan, J. Nanoparticles versus the placenta. Nature Nanotech 6, 263–264 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1038/nnano.2011.65

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